Murphy’s law says, “If something can go wrong, it will.” While it may be eerie to imagine a scenario in which your company experiences a devastating event that threatens its future, as a responsible managing director, you need to consider all options.
If you don’t, all the hard work and investment you put into your business could be in vain. To protect the future of your business, your technology must be secure. And intense vigilance is required.
Responsible leadership is future-oriented. Whether you like it or not, you need to plan for a worst case scenario. That is why we buy insurance in many areas of our lives: health insurance, liability insurance, car insurance, etc. You never know when something horrible could happen.
When dealing with Murphy’s Law, your information technology (IT) infrastructure should be one of your laser-focused areas. There are countless moving parts in your IT that maintain it: server units, workstations, software solutions, and everything else your business needs for productivity and profitability. You should also consider all the emails your organization receives, as well as all the files downloaded from the Internet, the websites your employees visit, and which they talk to over the phone, indefinitely.
You can see how a company has countless chances of something going wrong. When you rely on so many moving parts to keep a business going, it will eventually yield something. And when that happens, the last thing you want to do is force yourself to respond rather than be prepared. It is better to be proactive and take appropriate action before forcing you into an awkward position.
In information technology, this is easier said than done, especially for small businesses that don’t care. Instead of ensuring that IT is working properly, we could do the lowest possible measure and just keep operations going, pretending there is nothing wrong until a problem or crisis comes along. Appropriate preventative measures and maintenance can go a long way to keeping your business from suffering in the long run.
If you implement the right solutions, you may find that you can predict these events at least to some extent. And if you can predict these events, you can prepare for them. One example is using a remote monitoring tool that can help you know when your technology is starting to wear out. Your network security is a part of your business that also depends on preventative measures, as it is much easier to prevent security issues compared to responding to threats that are active in your network. Another example, these days of blackmail software attacks, is intensive training on network security protocols for your staff.
Computer software can arm your business with the right tools to facilitate your organization’s attempts to reduce risks and potentially catastrophic scenarios. To learn more, visit: https://www.cwit.com/blog or contact us at (703) 821-8200.
Alan Edwards, CISM, is Chief Information Officer at Computerware, Inc. in Vienna, Virginia.